The Puppeteer
by Aeriel of Isternes
Summary: AUish The puppeteer controls the fate of three helpless individuals: Kikyo, the miko. Kouga, the youkai. And Inuyasha, the hanyou. They dance for your amusement. Don't pity them, they feel nothing... don't they? Hints of KikInuKag and, oddly, KouKik


_((A/N: Based on a one act ballet, Petroushka. I know I said I would work on my other stories...but this came to mind after I went to a performance of Petroushka. (All bow before Angel Corella, the inspirational dancer!) Besides, it's a oneshot! Beware of the confusing-ness! Even I don't completely understand what I wrote, so what chance have you got? The original edition had color changes in the text, but I had to substitute for dashes. Hopefully it works okay.))_

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_Everyone said he was a magician. _

_He looked like a magician. How many ordinary people had hair like his, so dark and tangled that it would have come as no surprise if it took on a life of its own? How many ordinary people had red eyes that seemed to burn into your very soul?_

_The people of the village gathered in the square, eager to see the show that the man known only as Naraku had brought with him. It was festival time, and the only thought in their frivolous heads was to be entertained._

_Ah, to be so naïve..._

_A dark smirk flittered across the magician's face as he lifted a wooden flute to his lips. All of a sudden, the sheet slipped off the covered wagon that stood to his left, and the villagers gasped in amazement at what lay beneath._

_Three brightly painted boxes, closed off on all sides except facing the audiences, and within each box was a magnificently manufactured doll, life-size and life-like in almost all aspects._

_On the left, a male doll dressed in a wolf pelt with glittering blue eyes. On the right, a male doll with dog ears and silver hair, dressed in a clown's outfit. And in the center, a beautiful female doll in the dress of a priestess._

_The magician's fingers glided across the notes of the flute, and a haunting melody filled the air._

_The priestess doll took a jerky step forward, to the crowd's delight. She began to dance, at first in the same jerky unrealistic way, but gradually her steps lengthened until she was almost unnaturally graceful._

_The villagers collectively sighed, the men wishing she were alive, the women wishing they had her charm._

_The melody altered slightly, and the silver-haired doll jerkily exited his box. He reached his arms out imploringly towards the priestess doll, but she turned up her nose and danced away. _

_The crowd laughed at his expense, knowing they were meant to do so. After all, he was clearly meant to be a hanyou doll. The clown's outfit only served to make more ridiculous his plight._

_As the priestess's steps had grown more elegant, the hanyou-clown's movements escalated into a fluid grace that amazed the people even more. What craftsmanship!_

_The melody changed, more dramatically this time, and the last doll stiffly left the box. He jerkily clasped the priestess's hands, and she fell into his arms._

_There were some slightly dissatisfied murmurs from the crowd. A youkai and a priestess, even if they were only dolls, was a bit scandalous. It was clear to all that the third doll was a wolf-youkai._

_The hanyou-clown threw his arms back in rage, and attacked the wolf-youkai. The two dolls fought for a few minutes, while the priestess doll looked between the two of them, painted red mouth gaped open in horror, elegant hands raised in shock._

_Of course, the wolf-youkai doll succeeded, and as the clown-hanyou fell to the ground, the crowd cheered._

_After all...it was only a play._

_The audience is leaving. Time to pack and show the show another day._

_- - - - - - - -_

Inuyasha hated his life. As he contemplated what little there was to contemplate of his existence, leaning his head on his fist, which was further propped up by his knee, he could only conclude that someone must have really hated him in his past life.

He was, after all, a firm believer in reincarnation. That was what kept him going from day to day.

That, and Kikyo.

How miserable it made him to know that one aspect of the sick little game Naraku made them perform day after day was true. As surely as he loved anyone, he loved Kikyo. He certainly didn't love Kouga. The disgusting wolf-youkai was always grinning at him in that mocking way. Although he wasn't sure if any of the three of them could talk, he knew that if Kouga could talk to him, he would be gloating over how Kikyo liked him better.

But she couldn't possibly! It was just a play, wasn't it, Inuyasha reasoned. He knew that he could beat Kouga in a fair fight, one that wasn't controlled by what Naraku demanded of them or any weird spells. Kikyo couldn't possibly be as cold or uncaring as she was in the story.

Inuyasha glared at Naraku's portrait, leering at him from the wall of his box. It was all his fault that they were stuck like this! He was sure he had been alive once. That he had been _really_ hanyou once, not some wooden doll controlled by a puppeteering maniac.

Truth be told, he couldn't really remember anything concrete before his box, the shows, Kikyo and Kouga. It was a mystery how he had gotten here.

But Kikyo had been different once, he was certain of that. He remembered sitting on a grassy hill with her next to him. Her hair was tied back in an unusual kind of ponytail, and she was smiling sadly at him. And her eyes... her eyes were beautiful. They were filled with a nameless sorrow, but they were so alive! So unlike Kikyo's eyes now, glassy and dull, like a doll's eyes should be.

Inuyasha knew he was a doll. Kikyo was a doll, and so was Kouga. But they were not inanimate. They could move for themselves, and he could think! He could think and feel, and he was sure he had been alive once. They had all been alive once.

But, although their faces could alter expression, and their mouths could open and close, they could not speak. He did not know if Kikyo or Kouga could think. He felt that they could, but had no idea whether they were privy to the vast expanse of emotion that plagued him night and day.

Inuyasha had a fantasy- a dream, if you will. He dreamed of Kikyo entering his box, and looking at him with those sad eyes he saw in his mind. In his fantasy, she gained the depth he was sure she used to have, they escaped Naraku and became human.

He sighed, or tried to sigh, and leaned back against the wall of the box. It was only a dream. If Kikyo could love, she loved Kouga. After all, it was to his arms that she fled without a trace of remorse every day.

The hanyou doll was jerked out of his thoughts by a slight creaking noise.

Kikyo stood before him!

He gaped at her. _Can this be real?_

She tilted her head and looked curiously at him.

Inuyasha jumped to his feet, and tried to say her name, but no sound left his mouth.

Kikyo took a step backwards, then another. She backed away through the small entrance through which she had come.

He realized that, out of reflex, he had lifted his claws.

Lowering his head with a sigh, the hanyou doll turned to a corner of the box, and wished he could cry.

- - - - - - - -

Kouga's life was very simple. He beat up the silly clown in a play for Naraku, clasped the lovely priestess doll to him, and spent the rest of his time in his box playing with a coconut Naraku had given him for being a good doll.

The wolf-youkai doll reclined on a couch that the puppeteer had given him on another occasion, and tossed the coconut up and down, catching it easily. His box was considerably bigger than the hanyou clown's, he knew, but he wasn't sure about the priestess's. It didn't bother him.

Kouga didn't think much if he could help it.

After a while of tossing and catching the coconut, he decided to try to open it to see what it looked like on the inside.

Throwing the nut on the floor, the doll dug around underneath the couch for the new sword he had just received from Naraku for use in future plays.

He located it, and swung wildly at the coconut, missing it completely. Making an irritable face (if he could make a noise, he would have grunted), he tried again without success. Throwing the sword aside, Kouga rolled his painted blue eyes and sat down on the couch again.

Could he have spoken, his thoughts would doubtless have gone something along the lines of '_Bored, bored, bored.'_

Closing his eyes, he attempted to take a nap, but succeeded no better in this than the coconut ploy.

When he opened his eyes, the priestess was standing in front of him, her head tilted curiously.

A wolfish grin spread over Kouga's wooden face as he examined the lovely doll. He had heard Naraku refer to her as Kikyo once, but there was no way of confirming this, or impressing her with his knowledge.

Ah, well. There were other ways of wooing the ladies.

He took her fingertips and pulled her hand up above her head, then slowly twirled her around. She smiled at him. Kouga grinned back. She spun around slowly again, this time of her own momentum.

Getting the idea, he twirled her again, this time another way, then dipped her and pecked a kiss on her nose.

She smiled again.

They danced like this for some time, then Kouga fell back on the couch, while she perched securely on his knee.

Just as he was prepared to make another move, the dumb hanyou clown stumbled in!

- - - - - - - -

He hadn't really meant to go into Kouga's box. Inuyasha had worked himself up into such a rage over Kikyo that he had clean leaped through the wall of his box into another- which he now realized must have been hers. It had been dark and unfamiliar in there, and the poor hanyou doll had stumbled around for some time until he located a door. Thinking for sure he had discovered the way back to his box, he had burst through- only to find himself in another box altogether!

Inuyasha was momentarily blinded by the light in Kouga's box. Why, the lucky doll had lamps hanging from the ceiling! And what was all the stuff lying around inside? His box was empty!

And...was that Kikyo? On Kouga's _knee_?

He growled.

All three of the dolls jumped at the noise. Inuyasha was just as shocked as Kikyo and Kouga by the sound that emitted from his throat. Was he always capable of making a noise like that, or was he becoming human?

Inuyasha's speculations were interrupted by Kouga, who pushed Kikyo off his knee and to the side of the box. The wolf-youkai bared his teeth, but no sound left him. He glared at Inuyasha. He was doing everything the same, but Kouga still couldn't make a sound!

Inuyasha grinned. For once, he finally had the upper hand.

Until Kouga snatched up the sword from the corner of the box.

- - - - - - - -

_The magician was set up in another village. The townspeople crowded around, craning their necks at the mysterious covered wagon that stood next to the man with the hair like soot and eyes like burning coals._

_Curious, yet frightened, they gave him just enough distance for the show to start._

_The magician raised his arms dramatically, and just as he was about to fish around in his robes for the wooden flute, a clown with silver hair and dog ears burst out of the wagon._

_The audience gaped for a moment, but quickly realized he was a doll, and began to clap. Their cheers only increased when the hanyou-clown doll was followed by a doll dressed as a wolf-youkai, brandishing a lethal-looking sword._

_As the wolf-youkai slashed jerkily at the hanyou, who nimbly dodged, one last doll, dressed as a priestess ran out and covered her mouth with her delicate hands, her eyes wide with horror._

"_No! Stop that! Bad!" The magician screamed, waving his hands at the dolls, but they ignored him. The crowd laughed._

_The sword caught on one of the clown's baggy sleeves, and there was a great tearing sound as he jerked his arm away and his sleeve ripped._

"_You'll destroy each other! Stop that! Stop moving about! You will do what I tell you!" The magician was positively incensed._

"_Feh!"_

_The noise flew out of the hanyou's mouth almost automatically, and all the dolls paused for a moment. The priestess still looked horrified. The wolf-youkai looked startled. The hanyou himself was nothing less than amazed._

_Then the silver-haired puppet began to grin. "Feh," he said. "Feh, feh."_

_And then the wolf doll's sword finally found its mark._

_As the hanyou clown collapsed, the crowd gasped. Surely these were more than mere puppets?_

_Sniffing in irritation, the magician imperiously pushed his way through the crowd._

"_Look," the man growled, holding up the fallen puppet's arm. It was limp, and sawdust spilled out of it. "It's just a puppet. It's not alive."_

_The crowd sighed in relief._

_The miko doll looked stunned. The wolf doll looked smug._

_Before long, the magician was packed and ready to leave. The people of the village slowly dispersed._

_The dark haired man frowned as he locked up the caravan. "I'll have to find a new hanyou- this one was difficult enough to come by..."_

"NARAKU!"

The magician jumped violently, whipping his head around in all directions. No one had said his name in fifty years. "Who is that? Show yourself, coward?"

"NARAKU!"

Standing behind him was Inuyasha, smiling wickedly. Only now, instead of sawdust, blood spilled from his clothing.

Naraku screamed at the top of his lungs, startling the mules that pulled the caravan into taking off. Knowing that if he stayed, the former puppet would kill him, the magician ran away into the depths of the forest.

The hanyou smiled again. "Inuyasha," he said. "I am Inuyasha. I am...free."

Then he collapsed.

"Inuyasha?" A soft voice called. A young woman with dark hair hovered over him. "Are you all right?"

He searched his memories desperately. So much he had forgotten. So much to be recovered. Where had he smelled this sweet scent, seen those kind eyes before? He knew that he knew her.

"Kagome...?" he said slowly.

She smiled. "Kagome."

-:-:-:-:-

_END_


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